Do you remember the little tree frog that came in with Dot's orchids last year? Well, Dot fattened her up by feeding her crickets all winter, watching her change from baby-green to adult gray. When Spring came, and we began hearing the tree frogs singing outdoors, Dot gave the captive frog her last indoor meal, and then took her out and put her on a tree. She seemed hesitant to leave Dot's hand, but finally she took the plunge. We hope she is having a good life and is now safely hibernating somewhere outdoors.
Did the same scenario happen again this Fall? In early November, Dot was watering her orchids in her basement greenhouse, when out crawled a another baby treefrog!

Maybe it was the progeny of last year's model, but this time the weather was quite warm, so Dot carefully picked up the little guy, took him outside and set him safely in a tree.

Hopefully, he, too is now quietly hibernating somewhere protected from the cold and snow. But not among Dot's orchids!

The photo below is a baby treefrog Dot found this Fall on a Hosta leaf under the tree where she released the adult in the Spring.
What was Lee doing while Dot was feeding treefrogs and watering orchids? This past year, he authored several articles published in Michigan History Magazine and The Chronicle, a popular journal of Michigan history.

The Articles include the history of La Choy while it was in Michigan, Football Trains, the Mushroom Industry in Niles, Oldsmar in Florida, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan Centroids, and Michigan J. Frog.

Lee also volunteered hundreds of hours working on a project for the Library of Michigan, cataloging every printed item published in Michigan from 1851 through 1876. This project is nearning completion, but it won't be finished until next year.
Of course, there were things he did around the house and yard, besides monitoring the snapping turtle that tried to get into Dot's garden to lay eggs, only to get her head caught in the fencing. (The turtle's head -- not Dot's)

So now we have 6 new sprinkler heads so that the entire yard can now be watered, and the front ditch is now filled in so that the Fall leaves don't get trapped there anymore and lawnmowing is facilitated.

We now have a generator that will give us enough electricity to power our furnace, freezer and refrigerator, plus a few other things, should we have another power outage.